TOO MUCH SHOOTING

Man, I want to give this a higher rating, but this is one of the most irritating scenarios. You cannot go into one room without getting attacked from every direction. I end up just dying on purpose to memorize where all the enemies are, then try to complete it without getting hit as much. The maps are EXCEPTIONAL, however. The level design and flow is beautiful. But, the amount of enemies kills it. The Red and Yellow Droids are NON-STOP. If they cut the amount of enemies in half...it would STILL be too much. That's not even an exaggeration. Too bad. This could have been great. Marathon Rubicon is still what I measure perfection against.

Currently 4/5 Stars.

Great level design, tiresome combat (seconded)

I grow weary of levels which the creators have made 'hard' just by souping up the enemy's abilities until they do absurd amounts of damage, and constantly ambushing the player with enemies teleporting in from random locations.

The architecture is absolutely gorgeous but I think this scenario is likely impossible on total carnage. This one I'd actually enjoy more on a difficult lower than normal, and I usually play on Major Damage.

Work-Around and Walkthru

Game quits when trying to transport from the first level. Skipped second level and started new game with third level...no more crashes after that. Would like to to see a walkthru...stuck on Enchanting New Mexico... Otherwise enjoyed the scenario.

Fantastic Mr. Phoenix

Competes with Rubicon X for top place. The great thing about Phoenix is it's a reasonable length, not some tedious thing you have to spend a year playing on-and-off like Rubicon. The enemies are aggressive, and even Kindergarten is no cake-walk. The arsenal is innovative, intuitive, and fun to use. Truly amazing work.

Currently 4/5 Stars.

PHX levels are good.

As one who's made a few Infinity and 3rd party maps before, I've just come from playing the first level and the first part of the next. The level design and texturing looks good so far. I like how you put in secrets right from the start (won't spoil it).

Music is good. As for using existing assets; if the creators don't have a problem, I don't.

Glad you haven't thrown endless perpetually respawning Pfhor at the player; I tossed a scenario into the trash for doing that number on me.

Only suggestion so far is that the environment outdoor lighting (and shadowing) could be a little more detailed.

Its nice to play fun levels, and so far Phoenix has them!

Currently 4/5 Stars.

Press the ... MOoSE butt-in!

Loads of fun

Too late to be reviewing this thing, but I did want to say that this is the most kickass scenario out there. The maps are beautiful and immensely complicated, but at the same time, I found it easy to move from place to place and complete the objectives.

The combat really shines here. There are hordes of powerful enemies, but the arsenal is far more powerful (and more satisfying) than the standard Infinity weapons. There is always enough ammo, and usually enough maneuvering room, health, and saves to slaughter the hordes without being too frustrated. I've been more frustrated with other scenarios with far fewer and less powerful enemies.

Also, a great scenario to increase your skills in solo play. I first played it through several months ago on Normal. I'm now in the middle of a playthrough in TC, and it's even more fun than before.

Currently 4/5 Stars.

Great level design, tiresome combat

This scenario has amazingly designed levels. They are the main reason I stuck it through to the end. There is some beautiful architecture in this map set, the lava level (forgot the title) comes to mind. The combat is very hard, and you basically have to save after every encounter. One problem is the massive over use of red defenders. They are not quite as much fun to fight as their ubiquity would suggest. The weapons are generally impotent, which you get used to after a bit. The energy katar invincibility totally changes the gameplay once it comes out. It's a nice addition and makes the following levels more manageable, though makes the final boss battle somewhat trivial. Finally, the terminal texts are boring. I stopped reading them after about the 2nd level.

The skulls were a fun touch. I managed to get 31 at the end.

All in all a great scenario, very solid. Could use a rewriting of the terminals, and perhaps a reduction of the amount of red defenders.

Currently 4/5 Stars.

Great fun.

Excellent, very challenging but kept my attention the whole way through. I dislike the author's habit of putting in many doors that never open, but that can be forgiven in the light of the all round excellence of this scenario. I've played it through several times and kept going back to it because some of the levels are such fun to play. The Face of Modern Gaming is almost an epic on its own and Roquefortress is another favorite.

Splendid

Marathon Phoenix deserves highest praise. The map making, more than anything else, really stands out. The opponents utilize the innovative architecture to attack in ways that Marathon does not usually support. They frequently sally forth from a small side door or slip through a high window. Enemy ranged troops like to lurk on the ledges. The weapons are not terribly exciting but they'll bring the foe down.

The story has improved substantially from earlier versions. That being said, it still suffers from some significant gaps. A human/renegade alliance after the Count of Tuscany level would make perfect sense and it would make great gameplay to spearhead an assault of biosynthetic troops. Naturally, this agreement might fall apart after a few levels. Alternatively, we might ally with the Renegades on Red Eye Express. Also, the terminals speak often of the inexhaustible numbers of the Pfhor legions - as if even thinking of defeating them were nothing more than wishful folly. M2, of course, suggests that the rebellion of the S'pht would tear the heart out of the alien empire.

The Renegades would not have had any reason to give up the interior of the Atreides. (Tantive IV) The human presence on Intervals is unbelievably tragic. They would know better.

Phoenix does not use the ticks, yetis or drones. The first two would align perfectly with the background and fit into empty levels like False Dichotomy and Swan Song. The absence of the drones is a little sad.

Still these are aesthetic considerations, not pertaining to gameplay. (Just let us fight with the Renegades for a few levels before we know who they really are.) Overall, Marathon Phoenix is the best scenario that has come out for years.

Currently 5/5 Stars.

Finished and Playing Again - BETTER THAN ORIGINALS

The architecture in this scenario is impeccable. This RyokoTK deserves the highest applaud for the effort he put into this masterpiece. inf/5 rating, but 5 is the highest available. RyokoTK, make scenarios like this one, and you'll get me hooked.

Adlib added 3/12/14

Btw, Stone Temple Pilates at Normal is wicked difficult. Serial number of tries just to make it about the 20th time? Relentless brutality, but it's the way it should be. Rock on RyokoTK.

AND HONESTLY, Phoenix beats the original Marathon trilogy. Played it more than the originals.

Pretty close to being a perfect scenario.

This is definitely in the top five Infinity/Aleph One scenarios I've ever played (the others are, in no particular order, Tempus, Rubicon, Eternal, and Pfh'Joueur, in case you're wondering), and large portions of this scenario should serve as a model for future map-makers.

Cons:

Too frakking difficult. Not always in a "This is a challenge" way, but in a "If you stand in the wrong place for a second you will die" way, which is fine the first time but gets a bit frustrating after awhile. This probably wouldn't be a problem if not for the $**$ing fire speed of some of the enemies (I'm looking particularly at red defenders, blue hunters, the retooled Mothers of All Cyborgs and the like). This isn't helped by the fact that Defenders fire on the left while pretty much everything else fires on the right, which makes the strafe-while-circling-enemies tactic I use in almost every other scenario almost impossible (although this isn't really Ryoko's fault since he wasn't the one who designed them. I guess he could have flipped them and just hand waved it as the A'khr being different though). I recently beat Marathon 2 on Major Damage without all that much frustration. I couldn't even hack this on Normal.

Some of the secrets are probably impossible to find without the guide.

Pros:

Apart from the Guide Dang It secrets, the puzzles are uniformly superb. Almost everything in the game that isn't a secret can be puzzled out without consulting a guide, but in some cases you're going to have to think about it for awhile.

Possibly the most gorgeous map design I have ever seen in a scenario - even eclipsing the best levels of scenarios like Tempus Irae, Rubicon, and Eternal. Every single map is a beauty.

Apart from the insane difficulty, the gameplay is for the most part solid. I did find myself missing the shotgun though; the crossbow is an effective replacement, but you can't carry nearly enough ammo for it except on TC :(

Neutral/Who cares:

The story is kind of simplistic, but it gets the job done. The writing is effective and the terminals are fun to read without ever going on too long like certain other scenarios occasionally do (cough Eternal).

Some of the graphics were taken from other scenarios. Seriously, find something better to worry about. They're all used beautifully and all fit nicely with one another.

It would be nice to have an HD version of this at some point, though.

Notice to players: Every single level has at least one secret. The "Nearby Skulls" count tells you how many secrets are on the level. I don't remember any single level having more than seven.

Nice!

Sweet Deal

This is a scenario that actually caught my interest. Many other i play to play. This I actually paid attention to the story, which hasn't happened since the original trilogy. The game play was excellent, challenging, but rewarding. Great map design definitely is a plus. Definitely deserves 5 stars!

AWESOME!!!!!

I would like to say that this is the BEST SCENERIO EVER! The weapons are EPIC! Just one thing though: it is easy to get lost since the levels are so big and there are so many floors. The automap is rendered useless in these maps. It takes quite a while to find a way to do things.

Its cool

its fun.

well, i tried doing a Cheat run on Running From evil and i got to the boss room (i think)
i lasted a while and adventually died when i tried to amp up my health with Invincibility cheat(Nuke(0)) and in that time i died.
very fun, i suggest you do a cheat run on that level, it is very intense when you get to the last part.

RyokoTK's PENIX lacks virility

The combat is impotent, the architecture is flaccid, the atmosphere is sterile, the story lacks girth, the weapons are emasculated, the enemies are dysfunctional, and the whole package is generally limp-dicked.